NBA officials met with the Nuggets players, as they will with all the teams, to discuss the new crackdown on overt gestures during games, for instance, a player punching the air. The league has also doubled the fines for technical fouls.

Today, when all of this was brought up to Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups, he first gestured as if he didn’t want to discuss the controversial issue. But then, asked if emotions are hard to keep in check, Billups said: “It’s impossible to keep in check. It’s an emotional game, and it’s impossible to not show emotion playing basketball. Shoot, it’s impossible to do playing golf. And that’s no physical contact at all, no referees, nothing. It’s tough.”

The new fine for a technical foul to $2,000 for the first five during a season, then $3,000 for the next five, $4,000 for Nos. 11-15 (at 16, a player is suspended one game for every two technicals, along with a $5,000 fine).

Melo continued: “You’re going to have guys who get emotional during the game, clap their hands, yell and scream. As long as they do that in a professional way, I don’t think that should be a tech, but we can’t do that anymore. … From what we’ve seen (with the new crackdown), we can’t have that much emotion.”

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.